Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
137
@
Taimeiken
WESTERN (JAPANESE VERSION)/INTERNATIONAL This
old-fashioned, Western-style restaurant, located in the same building as the
Kite
Museum
(p. 195), has been in business since 1931. It's simple, inexpensive, and often crowded with
mainly middle-age and older Japanese; it was also one of the first nonsmoking restaurants
I saw in Japan. Its English-language menu lists such dishes as crab croquette, beef filet
steak with garlic sauce, crab and macaroni gratin, omelets with rice, spaghetti, curry rice,
and ramen. To Western eyes, the food looks Japanese; to Japanese, it's Western fare. In
other words, this restaurant serves the classic Japanese version of Western food
(yoshoku)
and, in that respect, has probably changed little since it opened. Diners are usually given
both chopsticks and silverware, as though even the management isn't sure what it serves.
However you classify it, it's an interesting place for a quick, cheap meal.
1-12-10 Nihombashi.
&
03/3271-2463.
Main dishes ¥980-¥2,880; set lunch (Mon-Fri only) ¥860. No
credit cards. Daily 11am-8:30pm (last order). Station: Nihombashi (3 min.). Off Eitai Dori, btw. Chuo Dori
and Showa Dori and behind Coredo shopping center.
6
TSUKIJI
Because Tsukiji is home to the nation's largest wholesale fish market, it's not surprising
that this area abounds in sushi and seafood restaurants. In addition to the recommenda-
tions here, don't neglect the many stalls in and around the market, where you can eat
everything from noodles to fresh sashimi.
6
EXPENSIVE
#
Tamura
KAISEKI This modern kaiseki restaurant has a friendly staff of smil-
ing and bowing kimono-clad waitresses and hostesses who make you feel as though
they've been waiting all this time just for you. The menu is in Japanese only, so they can
help you decide what to order, but because the meals are set ones, your budget will prob-
ably decide for you. Lunch is by far the most economical meal; many Japanese house-
wives come for the obento lunchbox, served in a pleasant dining room with tables and
chairs. If you order a kaiseki meal for more than ¥20,000, you are ushered to a tatami
room upstairs; frankly, I can't even imagine what the ¥52,500 meal looks like.
2-12-11 Tsukiji.
&
03/3541-2591.
Reservations required for dinner, recommended for lunch. Set kaiseki
dinners ¥8,400-¥52,500; lunch obento ¥3,500. AE, DC, MC, V. Thurs-Tues 11:30am-3pm (last order 2pm)
and 5:30-10pm. Station: Tsukiji (Honganji exit, 1 min.). Off Shinohashi Dori, catty-corner from Honganji
Temple, down the street running btw. Doutour Coffee Shop and a schoolyard.
MODERATE
$
Tentake
FUGU People who really know their fugu, or blowfish, will tell you
that the proper time to eat it is October through March, when it's fresh. You can eat fugu
year-round, however, and a good place to try this Japanese delicacy is Tentake, popular
with the Tsukiji working crowd. An English-language menu lists dishes such as tempura
fugu, along with complete fugu dinners with all the trimmings. Otherwise, if you want
suggestions, try the fugu-chiri for ¥280, a do-it-yourself blowfish-and-vegetable stew in
which you cook raw blowfish, cabbage, dandelion leaves, and tofu in a pot of boiling
water in front of you—this was more than I could eat, but you can make a complete meal
of it by ordering the Tsukiji course for ¥6,500, which adds tempura, salad, and other
dishes. You can wash it all down with fugu sake. If someone in your party doesn't like
